“Tempus Fugit” is episode seventeen of season four of The X-Files.
The episode opens at night on a plane. A passenger is telling another in the same row that he used to be like them, hating flying. Statistically, though, flying is very safe. Though it looks like Scotch has more to do with his equanimity than statistics. The passenger he’s talking to is Max Fenig, last seen in “Fallen Angel”. Max is watching another passenger who seems to be watching him as well. The other leaves their seat and heads to the toilet, where they assemble a polymer gun. Then the plane hits heavy turbulence and, as the man leaves the toilet, power goes out and a bright light shines in from outside.
Mulder and Scully are at a table in a bar and a cake with a sparkler is being brought over as people sing happy birthday. Scully says in the four years Mulder has known her, he’s never remembered her birthday. He’s also got her a present; something that reminded him of her. An alien implant? Yes, two; he had them made them into earrings. It’s actually an Apollo 11 keyring. A woman who was watching at the bar comes over and asks if they are Mulder and Scully. Scully hopes Mulder hasn’t arranged something embarrassing. The woman introduces herself as Sharon Graffia. Her brother asked her to find them if something happened. They’d understand what to do if he didn’t make it. Her brother is Max Fenig and he was on his way to deliver something that made him fear for his life, something the government would kill for. And his plane went down.
Mulder and Scully head to the crash briefing. Initial report says no survivors and they are played the tape of the last radio exchange. Mulder asks if the plane was forced down, as the tape said something about an intercept. There’s no data to support that, according to the leads NTSB investigator, Millar. Unless Mulder has something. No – although a well-known alien abductee was on the plane and he predicted the accident. This doesn’t get taken seriously. And Max isn’t listed on the manifest. One man seems to be paying more attention to Mulder.
At the crash site, Scully asks Mulder if he’s ever seen anything like this before. No; where’s the plane? It hit the ground at almost 200mph after an almost vertical descent. Currently, it’s being blamed on a weather phenomenon. Scully thinks they’ll be lucky to ID half the bodies. Even if they do find Max, what will that prove? Mulder doesn’t know. Perhaps one man’s life was worth sacrificing 133 others.
The man who seemed a bit suspicious at the briefing has found the body – well, half of it – of the man with the gun. He removes the gun, then an associate sprays the fingers and face of the corpse with something.
Mulder has found a watch. Scully has found a hand. He asks her what time the watch on the hand reads. 8:01. As does Mulder’s. The time of the crash was 7:52. 9 minutes are missing. Does Scully remember the last time they were missing 9 minutes? Mulder doesn’t think they will find Max at all; he doubts Max finished the flight with the rest of the passengers. Then there’s a call. They’ve found a live one, the man next to Max.
Scully meets Sharon at an airport as she lands in a small plane. Sharon has brought Max’s stuff. Scully needs to know everything, as a passenger suffered severe cellular damage of a type caused by a high level of radiation.
In the hanger where the parts are, Mulder is saying he thinks the survivor was sitting near Max. Scully says Max was travelling under an alias, one of several he used, and he was sitting there. Max used another to gain access to a place dealing in uranium 235 and weapons grade plutonium. Max made vague references to a theft. Plutonium could have caused the crash. Mulder thinks Max was abducted and will be returned. Scully, when Mulder lets her speak, says Max is returned. They’ve found his body, with the same burns as his seat mate. Meanwhile, Sharon is in a motel room when it shakes and a bright light shines in.
Mulder is looking at Max’s body, and others. Scully says they have the flight recorder. The NTSB suggest a complete systems malfunction. Mulder says that means they don’t know what happened. Scully suggests he look at the facts. Mulder says there are none. And all the wristwatches have been stolen. He’s not accusing the investigators, but someone who is making their life harder.
Millar proves rather more open to the weird than he seemed, when he discovers something, thanks to Mulder, that shouldn’t have been there. He doesn’t want to sound as crazy as Mulder, though, so only speaks to him and Scully. It seems the situation in the air was rather more complex than it initially seemed.
The story continues in the next episode, “Max”.